2020 Declutter Stuff & Organize Your Life

[moneysquirrel]

I think I forgot to check in with all of you for a while.  Manage to get through reading through the post so I know that all of you have been busy with getting things done both at home as well as in classes both as students and as teachers.  I have been somewhat productive during my time away.

My friend and I had the opportunity ti participate in a socially distance/mask wearing/ hand sanitizing craft show.  It was a little bit of a chance but we took every precaution possible -- wearing both mask and shield and well as only working with one person at a time.  Except for essentials I am putting myself back in lockdown.  

Accomplishments:
*Eye appointment went well -- glasses are ok for another year and cataracts are still too small to worry about now.
*Appointment scheduled for this week -- Estimate for car repair of damage done when someone backed into me at a parking lot.
*HVAC semi-annual inspection done 
*Zoom Classes have been completed until sometime in January.  I volunteered to teach the class again.  FYI: These classes are offered to all over 50 for a fee.  The one fee allows you to take as many classes as you wish.  Since these will be offered over zoom again this coming semester. PM me if you want the link to check out the possibilities. Classes in art, exercise, music, literature, computer, crafts and so on will be offered.  I know in the fall over 75 classes were offered.
*Finished Afghan
*Started decorating for Christmas -- tree is up and partially decorated, Nutcracker collection is out
*Old Christmas tree was placed outside with a note reading free on it and to my joy someone picked it up.  Glad that someone would be able to use it.  I think I used it for about 30 years.  Finally bought a new one earlier this year.
*Continuing to add items to the donation box as well as recycling and trashing others.
*Shopping is done -- very limited this year and most of those were GCs.  May pick up an item or two to go with them but only if I find something while out.
*Decluttering my $$$ as well -- one insurance premium paid, termite retreatment paid  Coming soon -- property tax bill and car insurance.

Goals/Appointments for this week:
*Housecleaning -- Monday I think (I will be outside while they work)
*Mass -- December 8 Holy Day
*Appointment for car repair estimate.  -- May go check on dishwashers while I am out in the area.  Still have not replaced the one that quit working in March.  startsmart  like debthaven I also grew up without one of these but while I could survive without one (as I have since March) I am not ready to go without indefinitely.
*Christmas -- finish decorating the tree, pull out Nativity collection, put up wreath and any thing else that needs to be done.
*Get back to that uncompleted beading project.

[startsmart]

Rearranged a bit of furniture in the living room today and set up the dining table for my quilt projects. All of the fall decorations are put away but I’m undecided if I want to put up Christmas decor or not.

I am hopeful that I can get my laundry done tomorrow and then work on the office.

If I get the tables I bid on then I can move a bunch of stuff to the laundry room and begin prep for the kitchen cabinets.

As always, a dozen projects in motion!

[Iggy aka IG]

Sounds like everyone had a productive weekend!

This weekend I did the usual dishes, 3 loads laundry, emptied the garbage, meal prepped and dinner planned, etc.

From the procrastinating list:

~Hung niece2's high school graduation senior year pictures.

~Finally remembered to get my friend's mailing address and gathered the Harley Davidson stuff to mail to him sometime this week.

~Had a burn party finally.  DH set up the burn barrel, and our neighbors came over with their twin 6-year-old boys.  They were so much help!  I'll pay them $$.  Bonus:  I gained back a rather substantial pile of binder and paper clips.  Their mom, born the generation after me, was inquisitive about how much paper there was and she teased me about the fact I balance checkbook registers. I reminded her DH and I file itemize due to my business.  Out went tax documents from 2008-2013, along with home loan and refinance documents from 3 houses ago.

~Which leads me to:  Before they went into the burn barrel (which they didn't yet make it), I started reading my journals from the late 90's.      A friend from back then texted back:  Why are you burning your journals?  My response?  To get rid of the evidence....? 

Didn't get to half of my list I'd prepared on Friday.  'Tis okay-it's going to be a long winter.

[debthaven]

Iggy that burn party sounds like a blast! LOL at getting rid of the evidence! My journals are still in the basement...

I got my Sem 2 schedule from Job 1 today. They REALLY messed up for all of us English adjuncts, not just me. I'm guessing they'll have to redo them. I've had my Sem 2 schedule at Job 2 for over a month. It's so frustrating. 

DH and I went to the dentist. I had my gums/teeth cleaned (I have gum issues), I'm good for 6 months. Before it was every 4 months, so yay! Then we went to the UK supermarket.  

Caught up on laundry. When my kids were little, I told them that sometimes I wished we were nudists. They were horrified!!! I said, but imagine how much less laundry we'd have!!!

We're going to Ikea tomorrow morning. We need (want?!) some things for Christmas, and it won't be crowded then.

Then back into hunker-down mode again. I am again wearing disposable gloves when I shop.

This week
- dentist/Mon
- Ikea/Tues

[TheOtherMe]

Iggy aka IG  I found several journals when I was doing the heavy duty decluttering.  Can't burn in town so I tore them up in to small pieces and put them with the used kitty litter to get rid of them.

I did give up on check registers several years ago and everything is on a spread sheet.  I carefully reconcile credit card statements to my records and balance the checking account when the statements arrive.

That was how I kept mom and dad's finances, too.  They didn't have any credit cards so it was very easy.

[TheOtherMe]

Trash man has been here.  So 3 cases of Lucy's food are gone and a few of her toys that were not suitable to give to another pet.

One more case of food for next week.  

[chiver78]

yesterday I decluttered a box of smaller framed things. I hung some where I think they will live, and have the rest sorted into what else will go up and what will get sold or donated. I have a lot of empty brand new frames as well, that I should just sell.

[debthaven]

This week
- dentist/Mon
- Ikea/Tues

Went to Ikea today, they don't do the size frame we need. Picked up napkins, candles, an oven dish to replace the one I broke, and two small frames to replace the ones DD's kitten broke.

Last day of student classes for the semester tomorrow. Getting 35 final reports to mark.

[startsmart]

It is crazy warm here for December (64!) and there was very little wind today so I cleared out a bunch of stuff in the garage. Now my 3 metal storage units are set up and I am slowly filling them with materials and tools. I also cleared out space in the middle of the garage and set up the double bed and mattresses, it is so nice to have those no longer leaning against boxes!

Christmas decor is slowly moving inside and I suppose I'll decorate though I don't know yet which room the tree will go in. The other holiday decor is still outside where it will stay until I need it. 

I do need to make a Goodwill donation this month, if just to get the stuff out of my garage, and keep filling the trash cans for weekly pickup. 

In other good news, it looks like the wasps abandoned their nest in my outdoor covered shed so I may try to disassemble that before spring arrives. 

I moved more boxes upstairs and am getting close to "done" with the green room now that I have the tables and storage shelf to hold all the seed trays. My biggest challenge will probably be water since the bathroom upstairs isn't operational yet so my daily exercise might stretch to include carrying 5 gallons of water up the stairs every few days. 

[tcu2003]

Dec 4, 2020 20:18:56 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

My poinsettia and Christmas flowers were delivered today.  They are beautiful and the flowers will be gone when they die.  I'm hoping to keep the poinsettia alive for a bit.

You can do it! I got a couple of poinsettias when my dad died (he died 8 years ago this week), and I managed to keep one alive for about 4 years and the other alive for 6.5 years.

[TheOtherMe]

How do I keep it alive?  I need instructions.    tcu2003

[debthaven]

Wow that's a long time!!!

So, I'm sort of worried about getting fired. Job 1 gave us our schedules this week. They told us those schedules are what's best for the school, so we need to do our best to deal. They scheduled all of us for (some) night classes, and for (some) days we are not available. WTF?!

After 3 days of tears and moaning and groaning from colleagues, I wrote to the N° 3 of the school, J, who sent us that email. I told him I looked up his schedule, and although WE all now have night classes, he doesn't. I added that I know he's FT, unlike us adjuncts, so he also doesn't have the problem of being assigned classes on days he's working elsewhere. And I copied my N1 + my Big Boss. 

After I sent the email I started crying, because I knew I'd be fired. 

J wrote me back within 2 min. He told me he has 11 night classes but they haven't been scheduled yet. I told him if you can do 11 night classes, then clearly you're much younger than me, which we already knew. He asked me which classes were a problem for me so he could get it straightened out for me. I thanked him but told him I was dealing with it, but that I had colleagues with babies who suddenly had classes till 9pm twice a week, as well as many other colleagues who like myself suddenly find ourselves scheduled with classes on days we work elsewhere.

He said ABSOLUTELY NO PRESSURE (my ass!!!). He said, PLEASE tell your colleagues to say they're unavailable!!! What a freaking hypocrite!!! But I'm guessing he'll now take it down a notch or three. 

I updated my LinkedIn account and set it to "open to work". But I really don't want to be fired and looking for work at 61. I admit, I have an exacerbated sense of justice, and a big mouth. 

I'm IMMENSELY grateful for the fact that when J wrote to the entire school, he wrote to us all on BCC. I was SO frustrated and angry (even 3 days later, I'm learning!) I would VERY HAPPILY have hit Reply All. Still thanking Gd that I couldn't!!!

[TheOtherMe]

debthaven   

[startsmart]

Ugh, that's so frustrating debt! I hate it when organizations don't take into account their employee's needs, including ages and other demands! Fingers crossed for you it'll all work out okay and you won't need to find another position. 


House update: 
-Tidied the floor in the laundry room including hammering in a dozen nails that were sticking out
-Continued to move boxes upstairs
-Put all my dirty laundry outside so I can go to the laundrymat tomorrow 
-Cleaned up a plastic storage bin thingy for the kitchen and it already looks better in there
-Pulled more fabric for a swap I'm doing, need to take it to the post office tomorrow 


I also decided to demo a bench thingy in my kitchen which I hate. It's ugly, not very solid, and collects clutter like crazy. The bigger problem is that it connects to my cabinets which will be painted and I don't want to work around the bench and have a gap in the paint. If I can clear everything off then I might be able to demo it by the weekend! 

There's 1 more pop up table I bought which I don't need in my green room upstairs so I think I'll set it up in the garage as a paint station for the kitchen cabinet doors. 

[debthaven]

Thank you friends.

I think it's already too late to replace me for Sem 2. Obviously it's possible, but they have enough fish to fry that they won't want to deal with that. Hopefully by then it will have blown over. Our department meeting is on Mon, I may know more then. 

Que sera sera. I certainly don't to be looking for a new job at my age. But if I had to, I'm sure I could find one. 

[startsmart]

I had a mini “ah-ha” moment today because I’ve just about filled one of my two trash cans and they were just emptied this morning. Annoying when you have a lot going on and trash piles up and then... I realized... there’s literally a dumpster by the business in my back alley that I can use anytime I want!

People routinely drop off their trash from all over town and if I add some empty boxes or a bag of trash it’s not going to be an issue. Definitely reminded me to keep going and not worry about trash capacity!

Tonight I got the weird bench emptied off and did some prep work on the walls. I’m oddly motivated to paint the kitchen walls and finish the laundry room. I did a first pass on the stubborn corner in the laundry room with the roller and will go back over it tomorrow. I also did a first coat on the doors.

[tcu2003]

Dec 9, 2020 9:50:59 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

How do I keep it alive?  I need instructions.    tcu2003

I never worried about trying to get mine to bloom the pretty colors again - that looked like a lot of work and required putting the plants in total darkness for 12 hours per day, which I knew wasn’t going to happen for me. So instead, I embraced and enjoyed plain green leaves once the red faded away.

I just watered mine a few times a week when the soil was dry. They don’t like to sit in a pot/saucer of water because that can cause the roots to rot. A few times I thought I might have killed it due to overwatering, but it would perk back up. They also like indirect light.

Good luck!

[TheOtherMe]

Thank you.  It's in indirect light.  I know I will do the put the plant in total darkness.  

We shall see how long it lasts.

[debthaven]

Well I got "scolded" by both bosses, separately. So I'm feeling very low. My job is not in danger at all. But I don't want this scheduling aggravation every semester, so I'll have to think hard about my options.

I didn't do any marking today. I need to finish by Sun because kids arrive next week!

This weekend
- mark 35 final reports

That's about 12/day which is totally doable, if I can only start.

The semester is over, just professor classes left. But I don't feel very happy today. It'll pass. 

[TheOtherMe]

Hugs debthaven


Niece in law in Toronto is having some stuff shipped here because it's so much cheaper in US dollars than Canadian dollars and they will get it whenever they can leave Canada.  So I am now going to be storing my stuff.  

[startsmart]

Got out the hammer and quickly demoed the bench. It was so loose I didn’t even have to remove the 6 screws they used! Patching and cleaning the wall behind it so I can paint later on.

I also took out one of the windows (bottom piece that slides up) which was FILTHY and now I have an intense need to scrub every.thing. I may also begin stripping the paint from those window frames. They’re gonna need a lot of work before they’re working again.

Thankfully the bench coming out didn’t damage the kitchen cabinets so I’ll be able to paint them as planned.

I also got my laundry done this morning - 4 loads including towels and sheets are clean. I put all the clothes on my bed so I’ll have to put them away before going to sleep tonight.

[Iggy aka IG]

debthaven, your posts above resonated with me.  20 years ago, after 6+ years with a certain company, I had had it "up to here" with them.  I was a traveling sales rep on the road for 3 out of 4 weeks a month and, according based on my journal entries I read yesterday, was young and stressed to the max apparently.  My sales manager (the what, 4th one? no one could hold the position) and I finally got into it over the phone.  I was in Texas at the time.  I cancelled my appointments for the next day, flew home to Chicago, poured wine, and emailed my resignation to him, his boss, and the owner of the company.  It was 3 a.m. and a full moon. 

Two other sales reps ended up quitting a short time later.  One called me a hero for finally quitting.

Hugs to you, and a relaxing, Happy Hanukkah to you and yours.  

[Iggy aka IG]

Lately:

~Finally mailed the Harley Davidson items to my friend.  It was delivered yesterday according to USPS.

~Mailed a box of assorted chocolates to my right-hand man at the home office.  Well, his home office since they've been working from home all year.  Should be delivered tomorrow.

~I have a few pairs of old eyeglasses for the Lions Club donation box.

~Finished reading my old journals (I took the day off yesterday).  I decided to not burn them.  Yet.    Included in entries were the first time I met my now husband 20 years ago, the births of both of nieces, and 9/11.  What a rollercoaster.

[debthaven]

Thank you Iggy, that did me good. You DEFINITELY did the right thing! 

I don't want to look for a new job at 61. I had a long talk with a close friend I brought into the school. She said, try to get more hours at Job 2 next school year so you can cut your hours at Job 1, but don't leave. She said, the key is offering them other availability, so YOU choose when you work, not them. Which is EXACTLY what I did today.

As unpleasant as all this is, at my age, it's probably better than looking for a new job. 

Another friend/colleague (who used to be in a union) told me there are laws against making people my age suddenly change schedules/work nights. I'm going to look into that, AFTER I finish my marking. That info could come in handy if I need it. 

But thank you all, because I am finally starting to feel better. 

PS The other issue is, the location of Job 1 is fine during the day, but NOT at night. The people at the main campus 3h away don't realize that, or they don't care. I would NOT feel safe leaving school at 8/9 pm. It might have been easier to just suck up a night class or two, but I'm fighting them on setting this horrible new precedent. 

[Iggy aka IG]

debthaven, it is my pleasure.

And, I agree with you regarding it's probably better than looking for a new job.  I'm middle aged, too, though retirement is more than a decade out.  I have to constantly remind myself I am grateful I have a job, especially this year.  To use the quote which I cannot stand:  "It is what it is."

[bean29]

So I read on the internet that I should get rid of my vertical blinds?  Where should I look for current window fashions?  Also, I am not supposed to have a table cloth on my table.  I have two wood tables that are about 15 years old.  I have no idea how durable the finishes would be if I uncover them.  The article I was looking at said to uncover your table and not to even use placemats.  Just wondering what most people are doing?

We paid about $250 for our kitchen table second hand.  I would not be broken hearted if I damaged it and felt I had to buy a new table.  I think that one would do better than my actual dining room table though.  I tend to use my dining room table as a desk, just am not sure about uncovering it.

[TheOtherMe]

When I paid my housekeeper not to come today, she told me lots of her clients had done the same thing and some people were outright stopping their house cleaning.

She is usually swamped this time of year, but she put on FB yesterday that she has immediate openings.  

I haven't talked to my sister for 6 weeks and had decided I wasn't contacting her until she contacted me.  She called today about an address for Christmas cards and asked if I received a card from our half sister.  She then asked if I was going to send one to her and I said yes and if I can find the few pictures of her that I have, I was going to send them to her.  I actually tried to call my half sister yesterday but the number has been disconnected.  She probably has a cell phone.

Well, my sister said she didn't want me to send her the originals, that her mother should have had pictures.  I told her that given the break up described in the divorce decree and the way her mom disappeared and left everything in her apartment, I don't think her mom had pictures to give her.  I had asked dad about pictures of her and he said last he knew her mom had them.  

Two of the pictures came from my uncle and he said to give them to her.  Another is one that my half sister had given to day (appears to be a high school graduation photo) and she wrote a very sweet note to him.  I don't think I should keep a photo like that.

I did email the photos to my sister so she now has a copy.

[Iggy aka IG]

bean29, I'm feeling like I missed something...?  Is this a new decoration trend, for allergy purposes, or....?

[bean29]

Dec 10, 2020 18:48:25 GMT -5 Iggy aka IG said:

bean29, I'm feeling like I missed something...?  Is this a new decoration trend, for allergy purposes, or....?

I think it was something to the effect of things to get rid of if you are going to sell your house? I have seen the vertical blinds thing a few times now, they are supposed to be very 80’s outdated. Mine have been in my house 15 years so maybe they were outdated when We installed them?

[nidena]

Dec 10, 2020 19:53:28 GMT -5 bean29 said:

Dec 10, 2020 18:48:25 GMT -5 Iggy aka IG said:

bean29 , I'm feeling like I missed something...?  Is this a new decoration trend, for allergy purposes, or....?

I think it was something to the effect of things to get rid of if you are going to sell your house? I have seen the vertical blinds thing a few times now, they are supposed to be very 80’s outdated. Mine have been in my house 15 years so maybe they were outdated when We installed them?

The house I just bought has vertical blinds.  I could give a rat's ass.  They block out the light and prevent people from looking in.  I'm sure they're circa 1980 but, again, who gives a crap?